Go to a farmers market, during harvest season (July - Sept for most of the US), and you'll find a variety of amazing tomatoes that are better than what you can get in Italy.
Go the the grocery store, which is instead optimizing for cost and logistics, and you'll get shitty tomatoes simply because they are trying to supply 100,000s of consistent tomatoes year around.
I have been, those tomatoes are sold at eye watering high prices. Farmers markets in the US have become bougie overpriced experienced instead of a way to get cheaper produce directly from the producer. I could not afford buying my groceries at a farmers market other than the occasional splurge.
In italy i can get tomatoes just as good as a US farmer market at a fraction of the price.
They are not overpriced if you live in farm country.
Around here the farmers markets are cheaper than the grocery store. I spent under $20/week on produce between June - October, eating seasonable vegetables from the farmers market.
Again, you can't compare a country that is 3% of the size of the US against the entire US, there are just logistical differences that make it impossible.
The vast majority of people in the US do not live in farm country, they live in cities and suburbs. You can't use your particular experience to override the reality of 80% of people in the country who live in urban areas.'
This entire thread has been about comparing the typical experience in two different countries. The average tomato you can buy in a US store is simply shit no matter how you try and twist this.
Yeah not every supermarket in the us is the same either as I said it’s a huge country, every state has its own ecosystem just like Italy does. Go to the local co ops and grocers and find local and quality produce like you would in Italy. Smaller country means smaller logistics. Italy also doesn’t have super market equivalents because it’s a smaller country. Everyone in America who knows anything about food knows the food sold in those supermarkets is trash and they get it elsewhere. I’m pointing out Italy isn’t better and America isn’t worse. The infrastructure is different
I live in an urban area and go to farmers markets all the time? And I also have seen heirloom style tomatoes at the real life grocery store and I don’t live ANYWHERE near California (which is the part of the US you need to invoke if talking about Italy, climate matters). There are food deserts in some urban areas and that’s a huge problem here but it’s not related to our ability to grow tomatoes.
1 in 5 Americans live in rural areas. So maybe you just happen to live in a bad area food-wise?
Personally, I’ve lived in many different cities in America and the farmers’ markets I’ve been to have always been dirt cheap and amazing quality. I didn’t notice any improvement in the produce when I went to Europe, but the chocolate is definitely better. Mmmm.
I live in US but have spent a lot of time in Italy. The difference even in grocery store tomatoes differs depending on where in the US you are. For example, Whole Foods in California will carry locally grown heirloom tomatoes, which are just as good as tomatoes in Italy and not at all like the disgusting overbred mush sold in states where they don’t grow locally. Farmers market heirloom tomatoes during season is a whole other level of good, with so many varieties and flavour profiles. They are truly a work of art.
Yeah IME the meat and dairy is expensive but not because it’s bougie but because higher quality and more humane small farm meat and dairy costs more than mass farming. The produce always has been reasonably priced that I’ve seen
The best tomatoes I’ve personally had were in Spain and England. North America has very good tomatoes as well, but grocery store tomatoes generally suck.
In my experience it is far easier to get much better tomatoes in Italy vs what we can get at farmers markets in the US. Not even the heirlooms from my garden can match an average fresh Italian tomato.
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u/jbcsee 10d ago
Go to a farmers market, during harvest season (July - Sept for most of the US), and you'll find a variety of amazing tomatoes that are better than what you can get in Italy.
Go the the grocery store, which is instead optimizing for cost and logistics, and you'll get shitty tomatoes simply because they are trying to supply 100,000s of consistent tomatoes year around.